Agamémnon - definition of Agamémnon by The Free Dictionary Agamémnon - definition of Agamémnon by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Thesaurus , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . Ag·a·mem·non (ăg′ə-mĕm′nŏn′, -nən) n. Greek Mythology The king of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War, who was the son of Atreus and the father of Orestes, Electra, and Iphigenia. He was killed by his wife Clytemnestra upon his return from Troy. Agamemnon (ˌæɡəˈmɛmnɒn) n (Classical Myth & Legend) Greek myth a king of Mycenae who led the Greeks at the siege of Troy. On his return home he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. See also Menelaus Ag•a•mem•non (ˌæg əˈmɛm nɒn, -nən) n.

a legendary king of Mycenae, the son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus, who led the Greeks in the Trojan War and was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Agamemnon - definition of Agamemnon by The Free Dictionary Agamemnon - definition of Agamemnon by The Free Dictionary Related to Agamemnon: Trojan War , Achilles Ag·a·mem·non (ăg′ə-mĕm′nŏn′, -nən) n. Greek Mythology The king of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War, who was the son of Atreus and the father of Orestes, Electra, and Iphigenia. He was killed by his wife Clytemnestra upon his return from Troy. Agamemnon (ˌæɡəˈmɛmnɒn) n (Classical Myth & Legend) Greek myth a king of Mycenae who led the Greeks at the siege of Troy. On his return home he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.

See also Menelaus Ag•a•mem•non (ˌæg əˈmɛm nɒn, -nən) n. a legendary king of Mycenae, the son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus, who led the Greeks in the Trojan War and was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Agamemnon - (Greek mythology) the king who lead the Greeks against Troy in the Trojan War Greek mythology - the mythology of the ancient Greeks Translations Agamemnon [ˈægəˈmɛmnɒn] n → Agamennone m Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content .

Link to this page: View in context Look at Aegisthus; he must needs make love to Agamemnon's wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him; for I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. View in context On this the rest of the Achaeans with one voice were for respecting the priest and taking the ransom that he offered; but not so Agamemnon, who spoke fiercely to him and sent him roughly away. And Achilles answered, "Fear not, but speak as it is borne in upon you from heaven, for by Apollo, Calchas, to whom you pray, and whose oracles you reveal to us, not a Danaan at our ships shall lay his hand upon you, while I yet live to look upon the face of the earth--no, not though you name Agamemnon himself, who is by far the foremost of the Achaeans.

View in context Draw up in the quarry—draw up, thou king of the Greeks; draw into the quarry, Agamemnon, or I shall never be able to pass you. cried a smothered voice,” praise be God, I live; vill you, Mister Agamemnon, be pleas come down ici, and help me on my leg? Agamemnon | Define Agamemnon at Dictionary.com Agamemnon [ag-uh-mem-non, -nuh n] /ˌæg əˈmɛm nɒn, -nən/ Spell noun 1. Classical Mythology. a king of Mycenae, a son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus. He led the Greeks in the Trojan War and was murdered by Clytemnestra, his wife, upon his return from Troy. 2. (italics) a tragedy (458 b.c.) by Aeschylus.

Expand < Greek Agamémnon- (stem of Agamémnōn), < *Agaménmon-, equivalent to aga- great + men- (truncation of Menelaus , meaning king) + -mon- suffix used in shortened names Dictionary.com Unabridged Examples from the Web for Agamemnon Expand Contemporary Examples We amplified the scene with Agamemnon to let people understand that Achilles is not acting out of pettiness. The Peterkin Papers Lucretia P Hale Thou didst say that he went out with Agamemnon to fight the Trojans. Loss and Gain John Henry Newman The Trojans proceed to the battle, while Agamemnon exhorts the chieftains of the Greeks. Homer's Odyssey Denton J. Snider Agamemnon, on the contrary—also not presented to us till after the death of Ajax—is but a boisterous tyrant 372. British Dictionary definitions for Agamemnon Expand noun 1. (Greek myth) a king of Mycenae who led the Greeks at the siege of Troy.

On his return home he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus See also Menelaus Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for Agamemnon Expand king of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War, his name perhaps represents Greek Aga-medmon, literally "ruling mightily," from agan "very much" + medon "ruler" (see meditation ). Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Agamemnon | Definition, meaning & more | Collins Dictionary Definitions noun Greek mythology a king of Mycenae who led the Greeks at the siege of Troy . On his return home he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus . → Menelaus Collins English Dictionary.

Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Agamemnon in American English (ˌægəˈmɛmˌnɑn ; agˌəmemˈnänˌ; ˌægəˈmɛmnən ; agˌəmemˈnən) Definitions noun Greek Mythology king of Mycenae and commander in chief of the Greek army in the Trojan War, killed by his wife Clytemnestra Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, compiled by the editors of Webster’s New World Dictionaries. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. Word origin of 'Agamemnon' Learn and talk about Aegisthus, Kings of Mycenae Aegisthus being murdered by Orestes and Pylades – The Louvre Aegisthus ( /ᵻˈdʒɪsθəs/ ; Ancient Greek : Αἴγισθος; also transliterated as Aigisthos) is a figure in Greek mythology . He was the son of Thyestes and his daughter, Pelopia .

The product of an incestuous union motivated by his father's rivalry with the house of Atreus for the throne of Mycenae, Aegisthus murdered Atreus to restore his father to power. Later, he lost the throne to Atreus's son Agamemnon . While Agamemnon was at the Trojan war , Aegisthus became the lover of the king's estranged wife Clytemnestra . The couple killed Agamemnon on his return. He became king of Mycenae for seven years before he was killed in his turn by Agamemnon's son Orestes . Contents Early life[ edit ] Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the Mycenean throne unfairly by his brother, Atreus . The two battled back and forth several times. In addition, Thyestes had an affair with Atreus' wife, Aerope . In revenge, Atreus killed Thyestes' sons and served them to him unknowingly. After eating his own sons' corpses, Thyestes asked an oracle how best to gain revenge. The advice was to father a son with his own daughter, Pelopia, and that son would kill Atreus.

Thyestes raped Pelopia after she performed a sacrifice, hiding his identity from her. When Aegisthus was born, his mother abandoned him, ashamed of his origin, and he was raised by shepherds and suckled by a goat, hence his name Aegisthus (from αἴξ, male goat). [1] [2] Atreus, not knowing the baby's origin, took Aegisthus in and raised him as his own son. Death of Atreus[ edit ] In the night in which Pelopia had been raped by her father, she had taken from him his sword which she afterwards gave to Aegisthus. When she discovered that the sword belonged to her own father, she realised that her son was the product of incestuous intercourse. In despair, she killed herself . Atreus in his enmity towards his brother sent Aegisthus to kill him; but the sword which Aegisthus carried was the cause of the recognition between Thyestes and his son, and the latter returned and slew his uncle Atreus, while he was offering a sacrifice on the seacoast.

Aegisthus and his father now took possession of their lawful inheritance from which they had been expelled by Atreus. [3] Power struggle over Mycenae[ edit ] Aegisthus and Thyestes thereafter ruled over Mycenae jointly, exiling Atreus' sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus to Sparta , where King Tyndareus gave the pair his daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen , to take as wives. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes , and three daughters, Iphigenia , Electra and Chrysothemis . After the death of Tyndareus, Meneleaus became king of Sparta. He used the Spartan army to drive out Aegisthus and Thyestes from Mycenae and place Agamemnon on the throne. Agamemnon extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. [4] However, when Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter Iphigenia to appease the gods before the war with Troy, Clytemnestra turned against him.

While Agamemnon was away at the Trojan War, Aegisthus became Clyemnestra's lover. He helped Clytemnestra kill her husband upon his return from Troy. In the older versions of the story, such as Homer, Aegisthus himself kills Agamemnon. In later accounts Clytemnestra stabs him when he is naked and vulnerable after a bath. After this event Aegisthus reigned seven years longer over Mycenae. He and Clytemnestra had a son Aletes , and two daughters, Erigone and Helen. In the eighth year of his reign Orestes , the son of Agamemnon, returned home and avenged the death of his father by killing Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. [5] [6] The impiety of matricide was such that Orestes was forced to flee from Mycenae, pursued by the Furies . Aletes became king until Orestes returned several years later and killed him. Orestes later married Aegisthus' daughter Erigone.

In culture[ edit ] Pierre-Narcisse Guérin 's Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, in which Aegisthus appears as a shadowy figure pushing Clytemnestra forward Homer gives no information about Aegisthus' back-story. We learn from him only that, after the death of Thyestes, Aegisthus ruled as king at Mycenae and took no part in the Trojan expedition. [7] While Agamemnon was absent on his expedition against Troy, Aegisthus seduced Clytemnestra, and was so wicked as to offer up thanks to the gods for the success with which his criminal exertions were crowned. [8] In order not to be surprised by the return of Agamemnon, he sent out spies, and when Agamemnon came, Aegisthus invited him to a repast at which he had him treacherously murdered. [9] [10] In Aeschylus 's Oresteia , Aegisthus is a minor figure. In the first play, Agamemnon, he appears at the end to claim the throne, after Clytemnestra herself has killed Agamemnon and Cassandra .

Clytemnestra wields the axe she has used to quell dissent. In The Libation Bearers he is killed quickly by Orestes, who then struggles over having to kill his mother. Aegisthus is referred to as a "weak lion", plotting the murders but having his lover commit the deeds. According to Johanna Leah Braff, he "takes the traditional female role, as one who devises but is passive and does not act." [11] Christopher Collard describes him as the foil to Clytemnestra, his brief speech in Agamemnon revealing him to be "cowardly, sly, weak, full of noisy threats - a typical 'tyrant figure' in embryo." [12] Aeschylus's portrayal of Aegisthus as a weak, implicitly feminised figure, influenced later writers and artists who often depict him as an effeminate or decadent individual, either manipulating or dominated by the more powerful Clytemnestra. He appears in Seneca 's Agamemnon, enticing her to murder.

In Richard Strauss 's and Hugo von Hofmannsthal 's opera, Elektra his voice is "a decidedly high-pitched tenor, punctuated by irrational upward leaps, that rises to high pitched squeals during his death colloquy with Elektra." In the first production he was depicted as "an epicene...with long curly locks and rouged lips, half-cringing, half-posturing seductively." [13] An ancient tomb in Mycenae is fancifully known as the 'Tomb of Aigisthus'. It dates from around 1470 BC. [14] Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, the leader of Greeks in the Trojan war - Greek Gods, Mythology of Ancient Greece Agamemnon Agamemnon Agamemnon was a Greek leader in the great Trojan war. The war made him recognisable throughout historical and mythological recordings, even to this day. Despite his heroics and great leadership, Agamemnon was a casualty of unfortunate events in his family which were based on treachery, rape, murder and incest.

He managed to run away and take refuge in Sparta with his brother Menelaus who then became a king of Sparta and helped Agamemnon to reclaim his throne in Mycenae . When Helen of Sparta was abducted, Menelaus called upon his brother who became a leader of the Greeks in Trojan war that lasted for ten years. Agamemnon himself managed to survive but was murdered upon his arrival back to his homeland, by either his wife Clytemnestra whom he married while at Sparta or her lover who happened to be Aegisthus, the son of his uncle Thyestes who fathered him with his own daughter Pelopia. Appearance in the works of art In the works of art, Agamemnon`s depiction resemble and is very similar to the representation of Zeus , the king of the gods. Agamemnon is generally depicted wearing a diadem and holding a scepter which are among conventional attributes of kings. Family quarrel In his early life, there were plenty of things going wrong. His father Atreus murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes, after finding out his adultery with his wife Aerope.

Atreus even went so far that the murdered children were on the menu of Thyestes for a while. However, Atreus hadn`t murdered all of his children, mostly because he didn`t know about Aegisthus who was a son of Thyestes and Thyestes` daughter Pelopia. It was not long, before Aegisthus took revenge on Atreus and murdered him. He then claimed the throne of Mycenae and ruled hand to hand with Thyestes. Together, they exiled Agamemnon and Menelaus from Mycenae. The brothers took refuge at the place of Tyndareus, a king of Sparta, where they married the king`s daughters Helen and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra together had four children, one son and three daughters. Eventually, Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta and with his superior army helped his brother to drove away Thyestes and reclaim his throne in Mycenae. For a while they enjoyed a decent life, until Paris kidnapped Helen, the wife of his brother Menelaus.

Trojan war This act, which was caused by the gods themselves, led to a war between Greeks and Trojans. And it happened to be king Agamemnon who led his people into battle. He had to overcome his first obstacle while still in Greece. He offended Artemis by killing one of her sacred animals and the angry goddess obstructed their departure from Boeotia. Greek soldiers were becoming more and more reluctant and, as a result of this, he had to sacrifice one of his daughters, called Iphigenia, to the angry goddess. Finally, Agamemnon made peace with Artemis, gathered his army, including two of the finest heroes Odysseus and Achilles , and set sail for Troy. Agamemnon then led his men into a battlefield, filled them with good positive morale and himself fought bravely. He killed many Trojans until he was finally wounded and forced to withdraw to his camp. It looked like they were going to win with ease, until his act to take away Briseis from Achilles, after losing Chryseis to Apollo , corrupted their progress. Briseis was a local woman of great beauty whom Achilles took for himself, after clearing the village in the Trojan lands.

It resulted for Achilles withdrawing himself from the battlefield as a revengeful act. The Greeks consequently started losing battles and morale was getting lower and lower. However, later on, as you probably already know, Achilles returned to battle when his closest friend was killed and Agamemnon finally gave up on Briseis and returned her to him. Eventually, with Achilles killing Hector and Odysseus` great disguise in the shape of a Trojan horse, the Greeks managed to capture the city of Troy and win the war. Agamemnon took Cassandra, a daughter of Priam, a former king of Troy, as his reward and set sail back to Greece. Murder of Agamemnon Meanwhile, his wife Clytemnestra was having an affair with no-one else but his foe Aegisthus. When Agamemnon came home, he was killed by either Aegisthus or Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given by the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, where she had first thrown a net or a blanket of cloth over him to prevent resistance and then killed him with an axe. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra.

It is said that her motives for the crime were jealousy of his new lover Cassandra and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia, as well as his departure to war over the Helen of Troy. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then ruled the kingdom for some time, until Agamemnon's son Orestes, with the help of his sister Electra, avenged his father's death by murdering Aegisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra. It is said that repeating treachery through generations resulted in a wrath of Erinyes who tracked down these sinners with their hounds and drove them to insanity. greek-gods.org (c) Copyright 2013 - 2016, all rights reserved Agamemnon (Greek mythology) - Credo Reference Topic Page: Agamemnon (Greek mythology) Definition: Agamemnon from Philip's Encyclopedia In Greek mythology, king of Mycenae, and brother of Menelaus. According to Homer's Iliad, he led the Greeks at the siege of Troy. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.

Summary Article: AGAMEMNON from Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology Image from: Mask of Agamemnon in DK Eyewitness Books: Ancient Greece The legendary leader of the Greek forces during the Trojan War, Agamemnon was one of the principal characters of the epic conflict. The story of his murder after he returned home was also one of the most famous episodes in Greek literature. According to the Iliad by Homer (c. ninth-eighth century BCE) and the Oresteia by Aeschylus (525-456 BCE), Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae, an ancient city-state in the Peloponnese in southern Greece. His father, King Atreus, had feuded with his brother, Thyestes. Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes, killed Atreus, and Thyestes took over the throne of Mycenae, banishing Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus. Eventually, with the help of Tyndareos, king of Sparta, they returned and drove Thyestes out.

Agamemnon became king, while Menelaus married Tyndareos's daughter Helen and succeeded to the throne of Sparta when Tyndareos died. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra against her will. In some versions, he even killed her first husband and baby so that he could marry her. This set the tone for their marriage: Clytemnestra always hated Agamemnon. They had at least three daughters: Iphigeneia, Electa, and Chrysothemis, and a son: Orestes. Agamemnon also had children with other women, including Cassandra and Chryseis. Many modern historians believe that Agamemnon really did exist, although they accept that most of the stories about him are probably fiction. In 1876, famous archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann uncovered the remains of a great civilization at Mycenae, including royal tombs containing bodies with finely detailed gold masks laid over their faces. Although there is no evidence that any of the tombs belonged to Agamemnon, the discovery suggested that the mythical hero was almost certainly based on a real Mycenaean king.

Schliemann's Discoveries Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) was a wealthy German businessman who retired early, at age 36, to focus on his hobby, archaeology. Although he was only an amateur, he made some of the most important discoveries ever about the ancient world. From 1870 to 1890 he worked on the excavation of Troy, in modern Turkey, revealing that the city had been rebuilt many times, and that it had been at the center of a large-scale war during the 12th or 13th century BCE. German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann made many important discoveries concerning Mycenaean culture. In 1876 he began work at Mycenae, hoping to discover the remains of Agamemnon. The tombs and ruins he found there were full of treasures, including gold burial masks. Schliemann excitedly proclaimed, "I have looked upon the face of Agamemnon!" Later archaeologists, however, determined that the tombs were far older than the 13th century BCE, the earliest estimated period of the Trojan War.

Nevertheless, Schliemann's work provided huge amounts of information about the Mycenaean civilization. Archaeologists believe that this ancient graveyard was the burial site of kings and other members of Mycenaean royalty. As with so many other Greek heroes, Agamemnon's story revolves around the Trojan War. The conflict started when Paris, a prince of Troy, in what is now Turkey, ran away with Menelaus's wife, Helen. Menelaus asked his brother Agamemnon to help him win Helen back. Many of the Greek kings and princes who had wanted to marry Helen themselves had sworn an oath to her father, Tyndareos, that they would fight anyone who threatened her marriage to Menelaus. Agamemnon rounded up these former suitors, who included Odysseus, Patroclus, and Diomedes, and gathered them and their armies at Aulis, ready to sail for Troy under his command. The adventure did not start well, however, because the goddess Artemis was angry with Agamemnon: he had boasted that he was better than her at archery, and she refused to give the Greeks a fair wind.

Calchas, a prophet, told Agamemnon that, to appease Artemis, he would have to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia. Menelaus persuaded the reluctant Agamemnon to do this, and he sent for Iphigeneia, pretending that he wanted her to marry Achilles. When she arrived with her mother, Agamemnon killed her on the sacrificial altar. According to some versions, Artemis saved Iphigeneia's life by spiriting her away from the altar and replacing her with a deer. Either way, however, Clytemnestra lost her daughter and was heartbroken and furious. Clytemnestra returned to Mycenae, while Agamemnon and the Greek forces sailed for Troy. Agamemnon at Troy At Troy, Agamemnon commanded the Greek forces throughout the war, which lasted 10 years. He was a forceful and experienced leader, but he sometimes lacked the ability to make firm decisions, and some of the other Greeks resented his luxurious lifestyle. In the final year of the war, Agamemnon was forced to give up Chryseis, a slave girl he had captured, to the god Apollo.

To replace her, he took Briseis, a girl belonging to Achilles, the Greeks' finest and strongest warrior. Achilles was very upset and angry. He sulked and refused to fight, and because of this the Greeks were almost defeated. They won the war only after Achilles rejoined the fighting following the death of his closest friend, Patroclus. Odysseus's plan for getting past the impenetrable walls of Troy also helped. Odysseus's idea was that a small group of warriors would hide inside a wooden horse made to appear like a gift to the Trojans. Once inside the city, the warriors would emerge from hiding and open the gates to the city, allowing the rest of the Greeks to enter. Victory and homecoming Odysseus's plan worked and the Greeks overran Troy and captured many prisoners. Agamemnon himself took Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, as his mistress, and sailed home. However, during his absence from Mycenae, his wife, Clytemnestra, had taken a lover, Aegisthus, the cousin who had killed Agamemnon's father.

Aegisthus was living as king of Mycenae, and he and Clytemnestra were plotting against Agamemnon—to the horror of Agamemnon's devoted daughter Electra. After Agamemnon returned to his palace with Cassandra, Aegisthus (and in some versions, Clytemnestra) murdered them both. After Agamemnon's death, his son, Orestes, who until then had been in exile, came home to avenge his father. Urged on by Apollo and with Electra's help, Orestes killed Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, despite his mother's plea for mercy. Orestes was himself punished for these crimes. He was tormented by the Furies, who were encouraged by Clytemnestra's ghost, until he was absolved of further punishment by the goddess Athena and a panel of Athenian citizens who sat in judgment of his vengeful deeds. Agamemnon's soul lived on in Hades, land of the dead. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus visits Hades and meets the hero.

Agamemnon explains how he died, and warns Odysseus to take care when returning to his own palace. The story of Agamemnon is a classic case of a revenge feud. One person is killed; in revenge, another person is murdered, and this second murder inspires yet another killing, and so on. In some ancient societies, such as the Viking culture, people had a legal right to commit revenge killings, but the problem remained of how to break the cycle of violence. The Greeks viewed revenge killings with some sympathy, but they placed a higher value on peace, justice, and harmony. In Greek mythology, revenge tragedies usually ended when the gods intervened to stop them. How Did Agamemnon Die? There are various descriptions of how Agamemnon died and who exactly killed him. In the Odyssey, when the spirit of Agamemnon speaks to Odysseus, he tells him it was Aegisthus who killed him, after tricking him by inviting him to a feast.

In Aeschylus's Agamemnon, however, Clytemnestra says that she was the killer, and in another of Aeschylus's works the god Apollo describes how Clytemnestra threw a cloak over Agamemnon as he climbed out of the bath, then stabbed him. In Electra, a play by Sophocles (c. 496–406 BCE), Electra remembers how Clytemnestra and Aegisthus together killed her father by hitting him on the head with an ax. According to Athenian writer Apollodorus (fl. 140 BCE), Clytemnestra tricked Agamemnon by giving him a specially altered shirt that had no neck or armholes. He tried to put it on, and while he was struggling inside it, Aegisthus killed him. However, all the accounts agree that Clytemnestra or Aegisthus or both were responsible for Agamemnon's death. Agamemnon in literature Agamemnon's adventures during the Trojan War are retold in Homer's epic poem the Iliad.

The story of his murder is recounted in several ancient Greek plays, particularly the Oresteia by Aeschylus. Agamemnon, the first play in this trilogy, tells of the king's death, while the other two—Choephoroe (Libation Bearers) and Eumenides (The Furies)—focus on the tribulations of Orestes. Agamemnon and his family also appear in works by many other ancient writers, including Pindar, Euripides, and Sophocles. As both a great leader and a tragic figure, Agamemnon has inspired many works of art and literature since ancient times. For example, in the 20th century, novelist Barry Unsworth retold Agamemnon's story in his book The Songs of the Kings; British playwright Steven Berkoff wrote a modern version of Aeschylus's Agamemnon; and Irish poet W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) mentioned Agamemnon in his poem "Leda and the Swan." See also: ACHILLES; CASSANDRA; CLYTEMNESTRA; ELECTRA; ORESTES. Further reading Graves, Robert.

The Greek Myths. New York: Penguin, 1993. Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Iliad and The Odyssey. New York: Penguin, 2009. Howatson, M. C. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Citation Ancient Greece Reloaded ANCIENT GREECE RELOADED ENTER THE WORLD OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS Agamemnon the Greek leader in the great Trojan war Agamemnon was the Greek leader in the great Trojan war. The war made him recognisable throughout historical and mythological recordings, even to this day. Despite his heroics and great leadership, Agamemnon was a casualty of unfortunate events in his family which were based on treachery, rape, murder and incest. He managed to run away and take refuge in Sparta with his brother Menelaus who then became king of Sparta and helped Agamemnon to reclaim his throne in Mycenae. When Helen of Sparta was abducted, Menelaus called upon his brother who became the leader of the Greeks in Trojan war that lasted ten years.

Agamemnon himself managed to survive, but was murdered upon his arrival from the war, by either his wife Clytemnestra whom he married while at Sparta or her lover who happened to be Aegisthus, the son of his uncle Thyestes who fathered him with his own daughter Pelopia. Appearance in the works of art In the works of art, Agamemnon`s depiction resemble and is very similar to the representation of Zeus, king of the gods. Agamemnon is generally depicted wearing a diadem and holding a scepter which are among conventional attributes of kings. Family quarrel In his early life, there were plenty of things going wrong. His father Atreus murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes, after finding out his adultery with his wife Aerope. Atreus even went so far that the murdered children were on the menu of Thyestes for a while. However, Atreus hadn't murdered all his children, because he didn`t know about Aegisthus who was the son of Thyestes and Thyestes' daughter Pelopia. It was not long, before Aegisthus took revenge on Atreus and murdered him.

He then took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled hand to hand with Thyestes. Together, they exiled Agamemnon and Menelaus from Mycenae. The brothers took refuge with Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, where they married the king's daughters Helen and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra together had four children, one son and three daughters. Eventually Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta and with his superior army helped his brother to drove away Thyestes and reclaim his throne in Mycenae. For a while they enjoyed a decent life, until Paris kidnapped Helen, the wife of his brother Menelaus. Trojan war This act, which was caused by the gods themselves, led to a war between Greeks and Trojans. And king Agamemnon led his people into a battle. He had to overcome his first obstacle while still in Greece. He offended Artemis by killing one of her sacred animals and the angry goddess obstructed their departure from Boeotia. Greek soldiers were becoming more and more reluctant and therefore he had to sacrifice one of his daughters, called Iphigenia to the angry goddess.

Finally Agamemnon made peace with Artemis, gathered his army including two of the finest heroes, Odysseus and Achilles, and set sail for Troy. Agamemnon then led his men into the battlefield, filled them with good positive morale and himself fought bravely. He killed many Trojans, until he was finally wounded and forced to withdraw to his camp. It looked like they were going to win with ease, until his act to take away Briseis from Achilles, after losing Chryseis to Apollo. Briseis was a local woman of great beauty whom Achilles took for himself, after clearing the village in the Trojan land. It resulted for Achilles to withdrawing himself from the battlefield as revengeful act. The Greeks consequently started losing the battles and morale was getting lower and lower. However, later on, as you probably already know, Achilles returned to battle when his closest friend was killed and Agamemnon finally gave up on Briseis and returned her to him. And eventually with Achilles killing Hector and Odysseus` great disguise in the shape of a Trojan horse, the Greeks managed to capture the city of Troy and win the war.

Agamemnon took Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, the former king of Troy, as his reward and set sail back to Greece. Murder of Agamemnon Meanwhile, his wife Clytemnestra was having an affair with no-one else than his foe Aegisthus. When Agamemnon came home, he was killed by either Aegisthus or Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given by the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, where she had first thrown a net or a blanket of cloth over him to prevent resistance and then killed him with an axe. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. It is said, that her motives for the crime were jealousy of his new lover Cassandra and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia, as also his departure to war over the Helen of Troy. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then ruled the kingdom for some time, until Agamemnon's son Orestes, with the help of his sister Electra, avenged his father's death by murdering Aegisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra.

It is said that repeating treachery through generations resulted in a wrath of Erinyes who tracked down these sinners with their hounds and drove them to insanity. [1] Agamemnon - definition of Agamemnon in English | Oxford Dictionaries Definition of Agamemnon in English: Agamemnon proper noun Greek Mythology King of Mycenae and brother of Menelaus, commander-in-chief of the Greek expedition against Troy. On his return home from Troy he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus; his murder was avenged by his son Orestes and daughter Electra. Pronunciation Which of the following is correct? The memory brought a smile to my face The memory took a smile to my face Which of the following is correct? Bring the pastry and roll it out Take the pastry and roll it out Which of the following is correct? I took £100 out of my bank account I brought £100 out of my bank account Which of the following is correct? I brought down every word he said I took down every word he said Which of the following is correct? She brought a deep breath She took a deep breath Which of the following is correct?

We brought the camera apart We took the camera apart Which of the following is correct? The band will bring out a new video in June The band will take out a new video in June Which of the following is correct? The bad weather took famine The bad weather brought famine Which of the following is correct? He took me by the hand He brought me by the hand Which of the following is correct? The company's taking out a new phone The company's bringing out a new phone You scored /10 practise again? Retry Agamemnon (deceased) - Genealogy Genealogy Join the world's largest family tree Gender Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love Build your family tree online Share photos and videos About Agamemnon, king of Mycenae Agamemnon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about a character in Greek mythology. For other uses, see Agamemnon (disambiguation).

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon ("very resolute") / (ancient Greek: Ἀγαμέμνων) is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope; the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was abducted by Paris of Troy, Agamemnon was the commander of the Achaeans in the ensuing Trojan War. Upon his return from Troy he was murdered (according to the fullest version of the oldest surviving account,Odyssey Book 11, l.409f.) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra, who herself slew Cassandra, Agamemnon's unfortunate concubine, as she clung to him. In old versions of the story: "The scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not taken up residence in Agamemnon's palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon's followers too"[1].

In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they do it together, in his own home. Forrás / Source: Atreus was murdered by Aegisthus, who took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with his own father Thyestes, Atreus´twin brother. During this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with Tyndareus, king of Sparta. There they respectively married Tyndareus's daughters Clytemnestra and Helen. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. Agamemnon's family history had been marred by rape, murder, incest, and treachery, a result of the curse placed upon Pelops by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered.

Thus misfortune hounded the entire House of Atreus. Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. Preparing to depart from Aulis, which was a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis. There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrath: in Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis's equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. Classical dramatisations differ on how willing either father or daughter were to this fate, some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles, but Agamemnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army set out for Troy.

Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, claim that Agamemnon was prepared to kill his daughter, but that Artemis accepted a deer in her place, and whisked her to Taurus in Crimea. Hesiod said she became the goddess Hecate. Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus. Agamemnon's teamster, Halaesus, later fought with Aeneas in Italy. The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. Agamemnon took an attractive slave and spoil of war Briseis from Achilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in revenge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war. Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a dignified representative of kingly authority. As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle.

He took the field himself, and performed many heroic deeds until he was wounded and forced to withdraw to his tent. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness. An over-exalted opinion of his position led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks. After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam, fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra landed in Argolis or were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus' country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, had taken a lover, Aegisthus, and they invited Agamemnon to a banquet at which he was treacherously slain. According to the account given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain by his wife alone in a bath, a blanket of cloth or a net having first been thrown over him to prevent resistance. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra.

Her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia, her jealousy of Cassandra, and the possibility of going to war for Helen's affection are said to have been the motives for her crime. Aegisthus then ruled Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, but the murder of Agamemnon was eventually avenged by his son Orestes with the help of his daughter Electra by murdering their own mother.

Question: Which legendary King of Mycenae was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus?
Answer: AGAMEMNON